Barak urges U.S. to rethink settlement stand

By Dan Williams

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak lobbied the United States on Tuesday to rethink its demand to curb Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a dispute that has strained ties as the allies try to close ranks against Iran.

A U.S.-sponsored 2003 peace "road map" requires that Israel stop expanding the settlements, whose presence on occupied land where Palestinians seek a state was deemed illegal by the World Court.

Israel, which says previous U.S. President George W. Bush tacitly agreed that new settler homes could go up to match population growth, has been taken aback by the Obama administration's repeated public calls for a halt.

Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said a total settlement freeze "would not be reasonable" -- risking a diplomatic showdown with Western powers keen to revive Palestine talks and stabilise the wider Middle East.

Barak, who has responsibilities for the West Bank, met U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones on Tuesday to ask for greater flexibility on the settlement issue, but the discussion ended without agreement, an Israeli official said.

An Obama administration official described the meeting as constructive, adding that Jones stressed to Barak "the need for all sides to fulfill their commitments under the road map and to take steps to create a climate conductive to negotiations."

President Barack Obama briefly joined the two at their White House meeting. He was to leave later on a Middle East peace promotion tour that will include stops in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world on Thursday.

The Israeli official said beforehand Barak would argue that stopping private construction in areas where Israel claims sovereignty risked harming Netanyahu's domestic standing and undermining his fractious coalition government, "not least given the unclear horizon on the Palestinian front."